Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery - Report Example

Abraham Lincoln Introduction One may come across countless stories of slavery in America. During 18th and 19th centuries, the Southern s of America were enchained in slavery. The only thing these major states relied on to build their economy was slavery. The stories of grief, violence, punishment and intense hardships all without any pay are very common among these slaves. "My name is Moses Grandy. I was born in Camden County, North Carolina. I believe I am fifty-six years old. Slaves seldom know exactly how old they are: neither they nor their masters set down the time of a birth; the slaves, because they are not allowed to write or read; and the masters, because they only care to know what slaves belong to them." -- Moses Grandy, Camden County, N.C. (University of North Carolina, 2007). Such used to be the fate of all slaves around the states who used to do all the productive works including construction of buildings, cultivating new crops, sailing ships, and several other domestic and hard jobs without being paid. Slaves used to be sold, traded and separated from their friends and families between different colonies. There used to be strict laws regarding slaves. They were not allowed to gather in groups, not even for the religious worship; they had to take permission tickets from their masters whenever they leave the plantation; slaves couldn’t even raise their own livestock, and they were not allowed to carry any weapon without master’s permission; slaves were not allowed to get freed and runaway slaves were allowed to be killed without any legal proceedings. Despite providing carpentry, masonry, construction and numerous other valuable services their status in the society was next to none. The greatest reasons why Abraham Lincoln is remembered in good words in the history of America is because is liberated the States from the tyranny of the slavery rule. In the life of Abraham Lincoln lies a remarkable story of sheer zest and courage. The rise of the hero from humble beginnings to attain the highest rank of all that is becoming the president of a country that leads in the forefront today. Abraham Lincoln was the symbol of bravery during one of the most turbulent time in the history of United States of America. He emerged as a strong leader during this time and his efforts resulted in eradication of slavery (Oates) and brought the Union back as a whole from the Civil War. He was a firm believer of the Union and wanted to restore it at any cost as Lincoln elucidates in his letter to Horace Greely, “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that” (Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln to Horace Greeley). His typical humane personality, articulation of democracy and his staunch believe in the Union symbolize the very fact of self-governance and sovereignty that each nation struggle to achieve. The life of Abraham Lincoln was paired with striking changes in the societal structure that molded the future of the United States. It was during this time when all these huge transformations were taking place, the question whether the United States could function with the institution of slavery or not raised its head (Nagler). The basic problem that nearly divided America was intrinsically linked to the issue of discrimination on the basis of race; racism. Examining Lincoln’s opinions on slavery and racism provides us a chance to analyze his struggles regarding these problems (Nagler).His role as the emancipator of slavery, liberating over four million slaves, creates a legacy that has given rise to a controversial argument on Lincoln’s attitudes towards racism and slavery (Nagler). According to Eileen Mackevich, Lincoln had a complex personality! He appeared to be a simple, he used to crack jokes, stay alone but along with this he was a visionary and a man of action (U.S. Department of State 7). Abraham Lincoln was born in 1809 to humble parents with no educational background (U.S. Department of State 7). His life started in a log cabin in Hardin County in Kentucky. He helped his father working on the farm (U.S. Department of State 7) and it was only because of his sheer determination that he was able to attain basic skills in reading, writing and mathematics with just only a few months of education. The man self-tutored himself to the extent that he qualified to enter the profession of law by the age of 27 (U.S. Department of State 7). 2. General Background It was his migration to New Salem, Illinois that opened an arena for him to acquire social, public and storytelling skills that made him famous with the locals. It was in 1832 that the Black Hawk war broke out between the United States and the Native Americans that Lincoln was elected as a captain by the volunteers. It was here that he was able to make some strong political connections that helped him develop to what we know of him today (Thomas n.p.). The beginning of his career in politics started when he was elected to the state legislature of Illinois in 1834 as representative of the Whig Party. Lincoln advocated the Whig’s idea of infrastructure to be provided by the state in order to provide welfare to the citizens and also agreed to the idea of protective tariffs. His comprehension of the politics in action made him develop his initial views on slavery (Abraham Lincoln biography). He not only perceived slavery as morally wrong but also viewed it as an obstacle in economic development. It was during this time that he engaged in the field of law and decided to opt for the profession of a lawyer. He was admitted to the bar in 1837 and following this he began to practice law in the John T. Stuart law firm after moving to Springfield, Illinois (U.S. Department of State 15-18). Around 1856 fame was coming in Lincoln’s way. He delivered the main address in 1856 at the Republican state convention. At this convention the Illinois delegation called for Lincoln to be the Vice President but he lost. The Republican Party once again nominated Lincoln to run for office against Stephen Douglas in 1858. The debate between Douglas and Lincoln took the center stage. It was during these debates that Lincoln established that he was against the institution of slavery. "A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved -- I do not expect the house to fall -- but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new, North as well as South” (Lincoln, A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand n.p.). This speech proposed Lincoln’s firm stance on the case of slavery however this very speech was used by Stephen Douglas to criticize him. The Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 allowed the spread of slavery to certain other states via the local option of popular sovereignty (An Act to Organize the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas, 1854 n.p.). The act was viewed as immoral by Lincoln as it manipulated democracy to legitimize an immoral act. The main bone of contention between the two was the institution of slavery. Douglas advocated the idea of popular sovereignty while Lincoln was against the idea of slavery spreading (The Americans). Lincoln recognized popular sovereignty in the lieu of deciding whether or not states should support slavery, thus he began to promote the fact that slavery is linked to immorality (Upadhya, John and Guarneri). 3. Why is Lincoln Important? The topic of Abraham Lincoln is important as he brought about the passage of the Thirteenth amendment which ended slavery in the United States. The 1789 constitution upheld the institution of slavery in America which became a force of segregation within the society. From early to mid-1800s, the entire southern populace and most of the Democrats from the North supported the institution of slavery. When in 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected as President, the South resolved to seek separation from the Union rather than just risking the loss of slavery. The only way to put an end to the menace of slavery was through an amendment to the constitution but the very idea was still alien when Lincoln took office in 1861. Lincoln acknowledged the perception of the northern populace towards slavery when he came into power and on the basis of that he directed the war to control the rebellion and keep the Union together. It was after the battle of Antietam that Lincoln got the opportunity to put his idea into effect. He used his authority to issue the Emancipation Proclamation which envisioned freedom for slaves in the southern states (Foner n.p.). The issue of the proclamation was a huge step towards liberating slavery but it still needed an amendment to be put into effect. The proclamation made the eradication of the institution as an explicit goal of the war (Foner n.p.) along with preserving the Union. The first effort resulted in a disappointment for Lincoln as the proclamation lost support in the House of Representatives with a vote of 93 to 65. The importance of Lincoln lies in the fact that after this defeat he did not lost his resolve and took the charge directly. He targeted efforts towards changing the mindset of the Democrats in the House as only four of them voted against slavery in the first round. His efforts resulted in the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in January 1865 (General Records of the United States Government) when Lincoln managed to gather enough favor in the Congress. The amendment was passed with a vote of 119 to 56 which depicts Lincoln’s determination towards ending the institution of slavery. 4. Locating Lincoln’s position on Slavery Now the question is where exactly we can put Lincoln’s ideas on the issue of slavery, his views on the problem of racism which is intrinsically related to slavery and his prospective attitudes towards the dynamics of race in United States (Nagler n.p.). Differentiating in between political and personal attitudes and agendas is a difficult task. This issue intrigues us to the questions raised in historical sources. Lincoln’s various speeches portray his ideas on the topic of slavery but little sources are available that define his attitudes towards the dynamics of race and racial interactions in the society. Being a politician, Lincoln had the quality of flexibility and adaptability. He adapted to the political requirements and utilized flexibility I order to reach compromises, thus leaving us with little chance to actually highlight his actual position on the subject of slavery and racism. According to Fredrickson, Lincoln’s views on racism remained unchanged till his death is a debatable question. He takes a consciously decided soft spot when revisiting the subject by taking a middle leeway when defining Lincoln as a white supremacist or the great emancipator (Fredrickson n.p.). Fredrickson recognizes the fact that Lincolns attitude and view were shaped in deep racist surroundings, Lincoln being a politician was influenced by the environment and as Fredrickson puts it, “he had to be responsive to such attitudes, or at least give them lip service” (Fredrickson n.p.). In his book, Big Enough to Be Inconsistent: Abraham Lincoln Confronts Slavery and Race, Frederickson identifies two extreme poles on the attitude of Lincoln on the topic of slavery and racism. The first pole that is identified sees Lincoln as a firm believer and encourager of emancipation and a promoter of equal rights for blacks, while the other extreme sees Lincoln as an extreme racist whose actions were solely directed against slavery and his actions were encouraged by sheer white nationalism and political expediency (Fredrickson n.p.). Lincoln personally was not in the favor of slavery (Schwartz 470) but his traditionalist constitutionalism restricted him to articulate these opinions and views politically. He was not prone to fundamental abolitionism that is he could not foresee a society in which blacks and white could live in peace and with equal status (Fredrickson n.p.). Lincoln was a Whig advocate shaped as Henry Clay and supported the program of colonization that was the return of freed slaves back to Africa. Lincoln did not view this idea as ethnic cleansing. It was Lincolns rise to national fame in the 1850s, which brought the tensions in his opinions towards race and slavery to the public attention. Although Lincoln advocated slavery to be morally wrong and envisioned its decline as an institution, no comparable argument was made against it by him (Fredrickson n.p.). In the oration delivered in 1876, Fredrick Douglas pin pointed that Abraham Lincoln was neither the man nor the model for the blacks of the United States (Fredrickson, A Man but Not a Brother: Abraham Lincoln and Racial Equality 39), “Abraham Lincoln was not, in the fullest sense of the word, either our manor our model. In his interests, in his associations, in his habits of thought, and in his prejudices, he was a white man. He was preeminently the Whiteman’s President, entirely devoted to the welfare of white men. He was ready and willing at any time during the first years of his administration to deny, postpone and sacrifice the rights of humanity in the colored people to promote the welfare of the white people of this country” (Douglass n.p.). Another view is expressed by Fehrenbacher that demonstrates that Lincoln was against the very idea of expansion of the institution of slavery which was wrong not only on moral and ethical grounds but also on economic and social basis as well and there was no need to extend the system any further (Fehrenbacher n.p.). The American society witnessed dramatic changes in the very structure of its societal system during the period between 1800s and 1865, in which Lincoln lived and subsequently rose to power. The environment of the society shaped Lincoln. The basic question that segregated the nation apart in two poles was the system of slavery with its consequences in economy, society, politics and culture (Nagler n.p.). The changes were not only taking place in the society but also the personal and the political Lincoln also experienced sets of changes concerning the attitude towards the dilemma of slavery and race, a development that might appear complicated to understand at times (Nagler n.p.). It is intricate comprehending what can be thought as pure political steps and what would be his personal beliefs; and where do these two meet? (Nagler n.p.). Lincoln did feel personally connected to some African Americans, for example his hairdresser in the town of Springfield and with the seamstress of his wife in Washington. 5. The Past and Now Even after the turbulent experiences of the Civil War, the American dilemma of racism still exists that depicts that Lincoln was not all successful in solving the issue of slavery. However he did prepared a pathway for a process which undoubtedly took a long time but indeed led his country, The United States of America into a new light of realization. This new era is marked by the election of Barack Obama as the first black president in the history of America. A country which went into a civil war on the issue of the color of one’s skin and the majority that considered the blacks as inferior themselves elected a black man as the head of their state. This act illustrates that not all the efforts put in by Abraham Lincoln went into vain but he was successful enough in making the generations to understand that racism and slavery are immoral and a society should be based on the level of equality and that same level should be enjoyed by everyone around the nation. When comparing the time that Lincoln face and the current time right now can be classified as periods of turbulence for America. At that time United States was involves in Civil War that brought about various causalities, loss and economic turmoil and today presents the same scenario with the United States involved in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. 6. Conclusion The legacy of Lincolns legacy cannot be forgotten or overlooked. It was his lasting efforts that attributed towards the preservation of the Union, the justification of democracy, and the emancipation of slavery. Lincoln handled the crisis in a pragmatic way that otherwise would have come to a different end if there was a lesser man in the presidential office. His biggest achievement was his skill to encourage and marshal the nation by referring to its best ideals while acting with no hatred towards anyone in the search of a more just, and more stable Union. There was no President in the American history that ever faced a bigger crisis than Lincoln and no President ever achieved as much under such difficult situation. Bibliography Abraham Lincoln biography. n.d. . "An Act to Organize the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas, 1854." Record Group 11; General Records of the United States Government. National Archives, 1854. . Douglass. Oration Delivered on the Occasion of the Unveiling of the Freedmans Monument in Memory of Abraham Lincoln. Washington DC: Gibson Brothers, 1876. . Fehrenbacher. Prelude to Greatness: Lincoln in the1850. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1962. Foner, Eric. The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery. New York: W. W.Norton & Company, 2010. Fredrickson, George M. "A Man but Not a Brother: Abraham Lincoln and Racial Equality." The Journal of Southern History (1975): 39-58. . —. Big Enough to Be Inconsistent: Abraham Lincoln Confronts Slavery and Race. Harvard University Press, 2008. General Records of the United States Government. "The House Joint Resolution proposing the 13th amendment to the Constitution." Enrolled Acts and Resolutions of Congress, 1789-1999. National Archives, January 1865. Lincoln, Abraham. "A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand." June 1858. nationalcenter.org. 15 03 2013. . Lincoln, Abraham. "Abraham Lincoln to Horace Greeley." Basler, Roy P. The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, n.d. Nagler, Jörg. "Abraham Lincoln’s Attitudes on Slavery and Race." American Studies Journal (2009). . Oates, Stephen B. ""The Man of Our Redemption" Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation of the Slaves." Presidential Studies Quarterly (1979): 15-25. Schwartz, Barry. "Collective Memory and History: How Abraham Lincoln Became a Symbol for Racial Equality." The Sociological Quarterly (1997): 469-492. . The Americans. Evanston: McDougal Littell, 2007. . The Story of Slavery in North Carolina . 2007. University Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Date you accessed site. . Thomas, Benjamin P. Abraham Lincoln: A Biography. New York: SIU Press, 2008. U.S. Department of State. "Abraham Lincoln: A legacy of freedom." 2008. . Upadhya, Rahul, et al. Clash in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. n.d. . Read More